Mark Hamill talks about Luke Skywalker’s death on social media, and it’s pretty depressing.
Trust Mark Hamill to spice up the Star Wars fandom with a hot take on the Force that will make you miss the days when the biggest debate was about midichloreans.
In an Instagram post (and tweet) this week, Mark Hamill compared Luke’s death to a drug overdose and claimed the Force killed the Jedi, making his character’s storyline in The Last Jedi way darker than it already was — and even more controversial. This is what he said:
"“THE FORCE KILLED LUKE. You have to acknowledge the irony in his fate.Almost like an addict that kicked his habit cold-turkey, remained clean for decades, only to re-use just once & then, tragically, overdoses.”"
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In The Last Jedi, Luke fled to Act II, sorry, Ahch-To in the first place in order to stop being a Jedi altogether. He’s not the first Jedi to dramatically self-exile. Both Yoda and, ultimately, Obi-Wan Kenobi took similar measures in the aftermath of the Purge.
However, Luke is actively trying to quit using the Force in The Last Jedi and the first time we see him use it in Rian Johnson’s film becomes his last living moment. That means that Luke was not using the Force to catapult himself across Ahch-To (gesundheit) while fishing. Pretty impressive.
Surely someone has told Hamill that this is a point of contention among fans. If you were upset that Luke was disillusioned and not ready to jump into any kind of heroic action, claiming that Luke was a #JediJunkie is not going to make it better. This is a heck of a way to dig your heels in. He even pinned the tweet!
What’s baffling about Hamill’s statement is that it suggests the Force is toxic, addicting, and dangerous. Aren’t we supposed to like the Force? Aren’t we supposed to be wishing it may be with us? Looking at it like a drug changes everything, yet this philosophical debate has been bubbling in the background of Star Wars for a while, as different characters use and define the Force in different ways. Can the two sides of the Force be balanced, and doesn’t that mean that the Dark Side has to exist? Maybe there never really was a Dark and Light side, just good and bad (and medium) people utilizing the same energy for different purposes.
To refresh, this is how Luke defines the Force in The Last Jedi:
"“It’s the energy between all things, a tension, a balance that binds the universe together.”"
That doesn’t sound like something you can OD on, however, power does corrupt. Maybe that’s all Hamill means.
Do you think the metaphor fits? Did using the Force kill Luke? If Luke is a junkie, what do we call Kylo Ren? What does this mean for Rey?!
While posts on social media do not count as official Star Wars canon, this read on Luke’s fate opens up a lot of questions, particularly as Episode IX is on Luke’s favorite thing: the horizon.
What do you think of Mark Hamill’s assessment of Luke Skywalker’s death.